Walk with me into my worldhttps://walkwithmeinmyworld.wordpress.com
A good life is a collection of happy moments.Sat, 17 Jun 2017 13:21:59 +0000de-DEhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://s2.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.pngWalk with me into my worldhttps://walkwithmeinmyworld.wordpress.com
The Origins of the Legend of Santahttps://walkwithmeinmyworld.wordpress.com/2016/12/23/the-origins-of-the-legend-of-santa/
https://walkwithmeinmyworld.wordpress.com/2016/12/23/the-origins-of-the-legend-of-santa/#respondFri, 23 Dec 2016 10:15:25 +0000http://walkwithmeinmyworld.wordpress.com/?p=395]]>]]>https://walkwithmeinmyworld.wordpress.com/2016/12/23/the-origins-of-the-legend-of-santa/feed/0christmas_2011_galleries_ormstown_5_211093ma0ahow-santa-came-to-beSHUNGA – EROTIC ART FROM JAPANhttps://walkwithmeinmyworld.wordpress.com/2016/11/29/shunga-erotic-art-from-japan/
https://walkwithmeinmyworld.wordpress.com/2016/11/29/shunga-erotic-art-from-japan/#respondTue, 29 Nov 2016 15:07:06 +0000http://walkwithmeinmyworld.wordpress.com/?p=371]]>One of the most unabashedly erotic images to ever grace the pages of an art history book came from the woodblock of iconic Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. Widely known for his G-rated, Edo-era prints like “The Great Wave at Kanagawa,” the celebrated ukiyo-e painter and printmaker famously depicted a titillating love scene between a few octupi and a satisfied-looking human being. The masterpiece swiftly and simultaneously brought full frontal nudity, bestiality, and female orgasm to the forefront of fine art.

The untitled illustration is but one of many sexualized paintings and tantalizing prints produced during the 17th century and beyond. Known as shunga, the genre was comprised of elaborate — and highly erotic — artworks that were banned from Japanese institutions for a significant portion of the 20th century.

Thankfully, an upcoming exhibit titled “Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art“ is giving artists of the ukiyo-e genre their well-deserved spotlight. The collection of works by Japanese greats like Hokusai, Kitagawa Utamaro and Utagawa Kunisada is celebrating the taboo-breaking side of art history with a survey of over 300 years of traditional Japanese erotica.

The allure of shunga, which translates to “spring pictures,” rests in the images’ ability to appeal to men and women of various sexual preferences. On the one hand, the expertly executed paintings and prints were liberating, featuring both genders freely and enthusiastically partaking in sexual acts. On the other hand, the artworks were light-hearted and comedic, focusing not only on romantic moments but also on the bizarre and awkward contortions that are more laughter-inducing than arousing. One piece shows a powerful women is seen experiencing a “happy ending” while another spotlights a duo of extravagantly clothed lovers attempting to feverishly circumnavigate their never-ending costumes.

Artworks by Hokusai and others weren’t simply gazed upon during this time, either. The pictures acted like sexual talismans, passed from partner to partner, friend to friend, and parent to child to use as both an educational manual and a good luck charm. In this way, shunga acted as the traditional precedent to contemporary anime and manga.

<<“Shun-ga,” spring pictures, have long been widespread in East Asia. They testify to a different attitude to sexuality and eroticism from our conditioning to such elements in Europe and are classified among the “ukiyo-e” pictures, pictures of the “floating world.” Almost all great ukiyo-e artists produced erotic pictures. Although forbidden by the government, they were sold unsigned under the counter and estimated to form up to fifty percent of ukiyo-e production.It is only recently that art and social history has endeavoured to gain an overall view of the theme of the Japanese mass medium ukiyo-e. Western visitors to Japan of the late nineteenth century were surprised at the seemingly relaxed attitude to nakedness and sexuality. And the color woodblock prints in fact still convey this impression as well. >>

„I’m sitting here in the same café where I sit every night, trying to ﬁgure this all out. I keep telling myself that I’m dead, andyet I still go on living. I’ve nearly died many times: I was almostwas run over by a car (it missed me by a hair), I’ve fallen out ofa window (I landed in some bushes), and I almost contracted alethal virus (but I wore a condom). What a pity. Death wouldbe ﬁt me well. Prior to my descent into hell, I was afraid of dying. These days, it would be a blessing. I can’t even bring myselfto understand why people are so worried about dying. Deathhas more surprises in store for us than does life. Now, I lookforward to dying. I can’t wait to leave this world and ﬁnd outwhat awaits us in the next. I think people who are afraid of dying just aren’t very curious“

„Not at all, pumpkin. Love lasts as long as it’s meant to, itdoesn’t matter in the end. But if you do want it to last, you needto learn to get used to boredom. You need to ﬁnd someone youwant to be bored shitless with. Because if eternal passion is im possible the best we can hope for is a pleasant state of boredom.”

P.S.: “When you lie, when you tell a woman that you loveher, you may believe you are lying, and yet something compelled you to say those words to her, and thus they are true.”(Raymond Radiguet)

]]>https://walkwithmeinmyworld.wordpress.com/2016/11/16/love-lasts-three-years/feed/03081034511_1_5_9gfnbvhvma0aae914654e472ad57b9e7dec537b8200aMe before Youhttps://walkwithmeinmyworld.wordpress.com/2016/09/01/me-before-you/
https://walkwithmeinmyworld.wordpress.com/2016/09/01/me-before-you/#respondThu, 01 Sep 2016 12:18:13 +0000http://walkwithmeinmyworld.wordpress.com/?p=344]]>„The thing that really informed it was a member of my family who suffers from a progressive disease,“ she said. „I have been involved in feeding her, taking her out, and that kind of thing. Part of what inspired Me Before You was just questions I had in my head about quality of life. At what point does the quality become meaningless? At what point do you give someone the right to decide for themselves?“ This dilemma echoes the struggle of Will in the story, as he wants to die due to his disability’s effect on his life.

The worlds that Alice Munro creates in her stories are bound largely by the landscape of Southwestern Ontario during the author’s lifetime, and by the people who inhabit that landscape. This might seem like a narrow canvas, but Ms Munro’s insight into her characters’ minds and hearts, her illumination of human emotion and human deception, places her among the truly great. Many had long suspected she would earn a Nobel prize before the award was announced earlier today. Her talent is no secret. And yet there is a nearly miraculous quality of revelation in her work.

May I have the soft copy of your reflective journal? It’s brilliantly written and comes as a very pleasant surprise for me as your teacher. Perhaps it’s because you’re so soft-spoken (well, at least most of the time) and I had no idea of the ability you have within you.

Anyway, your journal is focused, well-organized and touches on so many relevant issues. I would love to have the soft copy of your work as a reference for future students and as a way to remember a good student by the name of Wani. (:’’

]]>https://walkwithmeinmyworld.wordpress.com/2016/03/16/intouchable/feed/0maxresdefaultma0aDepression is a Triphttps://walkwithmeinmyworld.wordpress.com/2016/03/10/depression-is-a-trip/
https://walkwithmeinmyworld.wordpress.com/2016/03/10/depression-is-a-trip/#commentsThu, 10 Mar 2016 20:26:37 +0000http://walkwithmeinmyworld.wordpress.com/2016/03/10/depression-is-a-trip/]]>]]>https://walkwithmeinmyworld.wordpress.com/2016/03/10/depression-is-a-trip/feed/1girl-worried-1215261_960_720ma0aOneginhttps://walkwithmeinmyworld.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/onegin/
https://walkwithmeinmyworld.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/onegin/#commentsWed, 02 Mar 2016 21:36:22 +0000http://walkwithmeinmyworld.wordpress.com/?p=212]]>Eugene Onegin is a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin. It is a classic of Russian literature, and its eponymous protagonist has served as the model for a number of Russian literary heroes.

The story tells of mousy Tatiana, who falls in love with Onegin, a wealthy young poseur, and is cruelly spurned by him. Years later, after she has made an advantageous marriage, he returns and declares his love, but this time it is she who refuses him.

Onegin is about illusions and disillusions. About absolute love and sacrifice. About a soul who struggles to choose between true love or superficial things that fill his life. It is a love story incomplete. No word I’d use to describe not even half that feeling who shake your body, when you look at this work of art.

But if love is a blessing for you, if you could not even breathe without love, then you should see Onegin.

Captivated by its powerful narrative about love and loss, award winning actor Ralph Fiennes (The English Patient, Schindler’s List) and his sister, director Martha Fiennes, have assembled a talented and exciting team to bring Pushkin’s story to the screen.

The film reveals the violations of human rights, which are still common practice in today‘s China. The documentary explores the conditions in the Chinese re-education program, the brutality of an authoritarian state to tens of millions of adherents of Falun Gong, as well as the efforts of their supporters to stop the persecution The film won several awards: it was the winner of the Free Speech Film Festival in Philadelphia, won the LA Awareness Film Festival award and was included in the 45th WorldFest Houston International.

Free China opens by showing how Mao Tse Tung and his sociopathic, communist followers intentionally and systematically attacked the moral foundations of ancient China. Mao’s movements, purges and pogroms including the infamous “cultural revolution” were aimed at the very soul of China.

This shortish documentary tells the story of two people living on opposite sides of the earth who were both persecuted for their belief in Falun Gong, a modern Chinese spiritual practice that combines Buddhism and Daoism. It follows the stories of Jennifer Zeng, a Communist party member living in Beijing and Dr. Charles Lee, a US citizen of Chinese birth, both of whom ran afoul of the Chinese government all because they would not give up their belief in a peaceful practice that the Party deemed evil.

Falun Gong, is a moral philosophy that arose in reaction to the communist depravations and seeks “truth, compassion, and tolerance” and advocates for the restoration of China’s historical values. While the communist regime has attacked every source of ethical standards from Tibetan Buddhism to American Evangelical “house churches”, it has been the practitioners of Falun Gong that have led the resistance and suffered the cost. They have conducted their peaceful civil disobedience with resolve that would make Gandhi and Martin Luther King proud.

The film is a step inside the repressive Chinese labor camp system, where the Falun Gong faithful are all sent for nothing more sinister than their belief in a mind-body practice that the government initially praised and encouraged. That is until there were more Falun Gong practitioners than Party members, at which time they labeled it an evil cult and made it’s practice a crime against the state.

Jennifer Zeng was a wife and mother and a regular member of the Party in good standing until she refused to give up her practice. She was thrown in jail and tortured both physically and mentally. Charles Lee wanted to help his fellow practitioners in China but was ultimately jailed as well, despite his USA citizenship. Both ultimately found their way to freedom and w0rked to let the world know that not only does the Chinese government use these political prisoners as forced labor, making many of the products we in the West buy, but they have been harvesting organs from these same prisoners for sale to the highest Western bidder.